http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/21/americans.ecuador/index.html

Ecuador



This is my first post in Soap Box, flame away sirs and mams.


I don't feel bad, do you think this couple made an informed and educated decision?

I believe they probably saw some amazing things and had a fantastic trip until they were raped and beaten to a bloody fucking pulp. But besides the facts...which we will take from the article; confirmed by the State Department.


I would compare this to walking in a shitty part of Baltimore or maybe Overtown in Miami...what happened to using the brain god gave you?

Thoughts reactions...I'm curious.

10/22/2008 3:07:23 AM

I loved Ecuador when I went, but I spent most of my time in Cuenca and the surrounding areas. I never felt threatened at all. But, like anywhere else, it has its sketchy places.

10/22/2008 4:30:53 AM

yea i mean it looks like it was entirely due to the specific part they were in (near the Colombian border). I have had several friends go there including some that have gone every summer for years and years and who have studied abroad there etc. All of them love Ecuador and have had great things to say about it. and no, most of them were not in particularly touristy areas or anything.

10/22/2008 7:24:51 AM

Quote :

"In the blog, the couple seems unconcerned about safety, posting that they occasionally hitchhiked, visited the homes of strangers and posed for pictures with new friends they made on their travels."

Cmon... I mean.. cmon.

10/22/2008 7:33:07 AM

someone find a link to their blog

10/22/2008 9:28:51 AM

Quote :

"Britt Leis, 35, was traveling with his fiancee, Leah Koehn, 24, also of Bend, when they were attacked. Leis was stabbed 18 times between the neck and the small intestine, according to family members."

Quote :

"On her blog, Sudamerica Adventure, on Monday, Koehn wrote: “His (Britt’s) condition started out as very serious and has gradually gotten even more so. He is in intensive care following three surgeries, and before the last one, last night, I was informed by the head surgeon that there is no certainty that he will survive.”"

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081021/NEWS0107/810210457/-1/rss

I can't look at most blogs at work, so I couldn't search for the specific blog.

[Edited on October 22, 2008 at 11:25 AM. Reason : ]

10/22/2008 11:22:41 AM

I'm sympathetic in the sense that I'd wish this sort of event on no one. However, they seem to have been traveling in a rather reckless and dangerous way. I hate to say it because it sounds both patronizing and cliched, but the world is a dangerous place. I think there are too many tourists who go overseas, both American and foreign, thinking that other nations are some sort of playground where they are magically immune to the dangers that lurk in every society, particularly unstable regions. They're not theme parks but living and breathing places filled with people of both good and ill intent.

Quote :

" One senior official told CNN that the victims' parents complained to U.S. consular officers in Ecuador that the Embassy did not do enough to warn Americans that many people have been attacked in Esmeraldas. The State Department's Web site advises caution when traveling to the northern border region of Ecuador, including Esmeraldas. The travel advisory section notes that "U.S. government personnel are under limitations with respect to traveling alone and over-nighting in these areas due to the spread of organized crime, drug trafficking, small arms trafficking, and incursions by various Colombian terrorist organizations." The Web site says that since 1998, at least 10 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped and one killed near Ecuador's border with Colombia."

I sympathize with the parents' anguish and want for blaming someone, but there is really nothing the State Department could have done. They posted the warnings, and short of issuing a warning pamphlet to every American who purchases a ticket to go overseas, I don't see what else they could do.

10/22/2008 6:24:22 PM